Who owns this thing anyway?

In the article by Andrew Rikard, several great points are made about the ownership of an ePortfolio. I was initially opposed to sharing my ePortfolio because I assumed it would be full of assignments for my courses that were theoretical, lacking experience from actual implementation. I wondered why I would want to show this to anyone. However, as I began to learn that I had control over my ePorfolio. I got to create it to be mine, showcase and share my own learning, this has become a project I plan to keep up.

If my only motivation was to create a product for a grade, I wouldn’t feel ownership, and I wouldn’t feel as accomplished. I’ve created two websites in the last two months, both required for courses, but both were assigned with the freedom to design and build the content in the way I choose. The first one I created is about the growth mindset and how it can be implemented in schools. I put a lot of work into it and really enjoy the platform provided by Wix. You can view it here. The ease of Wix and the color I could involve, however, has made Word Press not as user friendly for me at first. I really want the blog portion of Word Press, so I’m figuring out ways to better suite me. I’ve changed templates and added widgets.

Anyways, back to the ownership of an ePortfolio. Rikard states it well that if no one wants to read my blog post, if it’s only purpose is for a grade, what is the purpose of making it public? There is no purpose. I share it with my classmates, send it to some colleagues, family members, and students to ask them to proof read and to show off my hard work, but then it stops. It becomes a forgotten about assignment never to be looked at again.

Applying the COVA method has been instrumental in my ownership of my ePortfolio. This is something I will share with my high school students to show them a new way to showcase their learning. I will also add the link to my resume and my LinkedIn.